Cuts at county jail put on hold

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

CLEVELAND

Layoffs and cutbacks won’t occur at the Mahoning County jail unless or until a three-judge panel authorizes them, according to Paul J. Gains, county prosecutor.

Youngstown and county officials will try to work out an agreement on jail operations, and if they can do so, they’ll file a joint motion to modify the consent decree that now requires the jail be fully open and staffed, Gains added.

“Hopefully, we can craft an agreement that’s acceptable to everybody,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll be meeting within the next week with the city.”

If an agreement can’t be worked out, the county will file the motion to reduce jail operations due to its budget constraints, and the panel of three federal judges overseeing the jail will have a hearing on it, he said.

“The court will entertain a motion to modify the consent decree because the court recognizes the dire financial straits the county’s in,” the prosecutor said.

Gains made his remarks after a nearly four-hour closed-door status conference Wednesday between city and county officials and lawyers for inmates who won a lawsuit concerning jail crowding.

The informal meeting was in the chambers of U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster, who was attempting to facilitate such an agreement, and who will oversee a mediation session March 29, if necessary.

About 20 people attended the status conference, including Gains, all three county commissioners, the city law director and deputy law director, the inmates’ lawyers, Sheriff Randall A. Wellington and his command staff, and officials of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents county deputies.

Wellington announced Friday his plans to lay off one-third of his staff and close half the jail on March 28 due to the county’s budget woes.

One of the subjects discussed in Wednesday’s session was the possibility the city would make some further financial commitment to county jail operations, said Iris Torres-Guglucello, city law director.

An inmate boarding agreement, under which the city paid the county $80 per prisoner per day for city misdemeanor prisoners beyond the 71st city inmate, expired last month.

The discussion concerned “trying to find the funds to keep the jail operating and at what level the jail is going to operate,” Torres-Guglucello said.

“We agreed to keep talking and keep cooperating and trying to come up with a solution,” she said.

“We had a great discussion. ... At this point, I’m feeling positive,” said Commissioner David N. Ludt.

Both Commissioner John A. McNally IV and county Administrator George J. Tablack characterized the meeting as productive.

County officials have said declines in revenues from the county’s sales tax and interest on investments and the loss of revenue-generating city and federal inmates in the jail made it impossible to keep the facility fully open and staffed.

Anthony Farris, deputy city law director, said before the meeting that he opposed the jail cutback because it violates the consent decree’s requirement for full jail operation and staffing.

The three-year consent decree expires May 17, but Farris said federal court supervision of the jail could extend beyond that date.

In a related development Wednesday, Atty. David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, called on Glenn Kountz, president of FOP Lodge 141, which represents county sheriff’s deputies, to abandon his effort to remove the county commissioners from office.

Saying he understands the deputies’ frustration and anger concerning the proposed layoffs, Betras asked the deputies to focus their efforts on renewal of the county’s half-percent sales tax on May 4 “rather than on recalling officeholders who are attempting to deal with the consequences of the national recession and the rejection of the sales tax last November.”

Kountz said the FOP picked up the removal petitions Friday because the union no longer has confidence in the commissioners’ leadership.